This invention relates generally to soldering techniques, sectional and slanted soldering iron tip designs, and more particularly to the improved soldering of flat pack integrated circuits (ICs) to printed circuit boards (PCBs) and for general soldering applications.
Heretofore, the soldering techniques and conventional soldering iron tip tools have many disadvantages when soldering the pins of flat pack integrated circuits (Ics) to printed circuit boards (PCBs). When integrated circuits are soldered into place on printed circuit boards in a manufacturing environment, very large and expensive equipment is used to simultaneously solder all of the pins on the integrated circuit individually to the appropriate connected on the printed circuit board. When it is necessary to replace a faulty integrated circuit, however, it is not economical to use the machines in the manufacturing plant to carry out this individual replacement. Today, integrated circuits are replaced on already manufactured printed circuit boards by attempting to solder each individual pin on the integrated circuit to the corresponding connector on the printed circuit board one by one. This method is not economically feasible because it requires approximately one to two hours to replace a single flat pack integrated circuit with 100 pins or more. Moreover, the quality of the resulting soldered joint is poor and many times not functional because the solder bridges between adjacent pins on the integrated circuit. Often times breakage occurs in the joint on the printed circuit board due to too much pressure having been applied by the soldering iron tip during the replacement.
As a result, there is a need for a simple technique or method of soldering replacement integrated circuits in place which can be performed quickly and solders the new integrated circuits to the printed circuit board with the same quality as the initially manufactured assembly.